PROCEEDINGS 


BOSTONIAN  SOCIETY 


EULOGY 


SAMUEL  MILLER  OUINCY 


SAMUEL   ARTHUR    BENT 


MAY    24,    1887 


BOSTON 

OLD    STATE    HOUSE 

1887. 


SAMUEL   MILLER   QUINCY 


PROCEEDINGS 


The  Old  State  House,  May  24,  1887. 

A  special  meeting  of  the  Bostonian  Society  was  held  in 
the  Council  Chamber,  this  day,  at  three  o'clock,  P.  M.  The 
President,  Mr.  Curtis  Guild,  called  the  ladies  and  gentlemen 
present  to  order,  and  said  :  — 

"The  Bostonian  Society  and  its  friends  have  been  called 
together  to-day  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  whom 
the  Society  esteemed,  not  only  as  a  fellow-member,  but  as  a 
citizen,  a  patriot  and  a  man.  It  was  eminently  fitting  that 
the  germ  of  this  Society,  the  Antiquarian  Club,  having  for  its 
object  the  promotion  of  the  study  of  the  history  of  Boston  and 
the  preservation  of  its  antiquities,  should  have  as  its  first 
President  one  whose  family  name  is  identified  with  some  of 
the  brightest  pages  of  Boston's  past  history.  A  graduate  of 
Harvard  University,  an  ardent  lover  of  Boston  and  her  insti- 
tutions, a  representative  in  her  City  Councils,  a  good  and 
worthy  citizen,  and  with  ready  patriotism  offering  his  valuable 
services  and  his  life  to  his  country  in  her  hour  of  need,  Samuel 
Miller  Quincy  has  not  only  proved  a  worthy  representative 
of  a  name  honored  and  revered  in  this  Commonwealth,  but 
he  has  shown  that  he  possessed  those  characteristics  of  mind 


and  heart  that  everywhere  command  admiration  and  respect. 
Animated  with  this  feeling,  this  Society  has  felt  that  the 
death  of  such  a  man  should  be  marked  by  more  than  mere 
passing  mention,  and  has  therefore  invited  a  gentleman  amply 
qualified  to  perform  the  duty,  to  present  in  a  fitting  manner 
a  record  of  our  late  fellow-member's  life,  and  those  traits  of 
character  that  endeared  him  to  all  who  enjoyed  his  friendship 
or  were  honored  with  his  acquaintance. 

"  Before  inviting  you  to  listen  to  this  address,  I  will  ask 
the  committee  appointed  to  draft  resolutions  on  the  death  of 
General  Samuel  Miller  Quincy,  for  their  report." 

The  Rev.  Joshua  P.  Bodfish,  in  responding,  invited  atten- 
tion to  the  beautiful  crayon  portrait  of  the  General  by  Otto 
Grundmann,  appropriately  decorated  with  American  flags  ;  to 
the  painting  by  Page  of  Mayor  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  the  father 
of  General  Quincy  ;  to  Josiah  Quincy,  the  second  mayor  of 
Boston  (a  crayon  by  Furness),  his  grandfather  ;  and  lastly  to 
the  great-grandfather,  Josiah  Quincy  (a  painting  by  Gilbert 
Stuart),  who  defended  in  this  Council  Chamber  the  British 
troops  who  took  part  in  the  so-called  Boston  Massacre.  Thus 
the  whole  family  looked  down  from  the  walls  to  acquiesce  in 
the  words  of  eulogy  on  the  first  President  of  the  Boston 
Antiquarian  Club. 

Mr.  Bodfish  then  presented  the  following  resolutions,  which 
were  adopted  by  a  rising  vote  :  — 

Whereas,  It  hath  pleased  our  Heavenly  Father  to  call  to 
himself  General  Samuel  Miller  Quincy,  formerly  Secretary  of 
this  Society,  and  first  President  of  the  Antiquarian  Club ; 

Resolved,  That  the  Bostonian  Society  sincerely  mourns  the 
loss  of  one  who  proved  himself  a  most  zealous  and  efficient 
officer  of  the  Society,  whose  services  at  the  time  of  its  organ- 
ization were  invaluable,  and  to  whose  labors  it  is  indebted  in 
a  great  measure  for  the  gratifying  success  that  has  attended 
its  work. 

Resolved,  That  in  common  with  our  fellow  citizens,  we 
desire  to  honor  the  memory  of  General  Quincy  as  the  true 


patriot,  which  he  proved  himself  by  his  gallant  services  in 
the  hour  of  his  country's  need,  and  also  a  most  worthy 
gentleman  and  friend,  and  the  worthy  bearer  of  an  honored 
name. 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  recorded  on  the  books 
of  the  Society,  and  a  copy  of  the  same  be  forwarded  to  the 
bereaved  family. 

(Signed,)  Joshua  P.  Bodfish, 

Samuel  H.  Russell, 
Hamilton  A.  Hill, 

Committee. 

The  President  then  said  that  those  present  needed  no  in- 
troduction to  a  talented  friend  of  the  late  General  Ouincy, 
and  that  they  would  take  pleasure  in  listening  to  Mr.  Samuel 
Arthur  Bent,  a  fellow-member  of  the  Society. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Bent's  oration,  a  vote  of  thanks  was 
unanimously  given  to  him  for  his  interesting  address,  and  it 
was  also  voted  that  the  same  should  be  printed. 

William  Clarence  Burrage, 

Clerk. 


EULOGY 


Mr.  President:  —  One  of  the  objects  of  this  Society,  as  de- 
clared in  the  By-Laws,  is  "to  promote  the  study  of  the  history 
of  Boston."  To  address  the  members  of  this  association  in 
commemoration  of  the  late  Samuel  Miller  Quincy  is  an  un- 
dertaking immediately  within  the  scope  of  our  Constitution, 
for,  although  he  left  us  but  yesterday,  he  already  belongs  to, 
and  is  a  part  of,  historic  Boston.  The  worthy  inheritor  of  a 
distinguished  name,  he  gave  it  the  fresh  lustre  of  martial 
achievement,  and  then  entwined  the  soldier's  laurel  with  the 
scholar's  bay.  That  we  meet  here  in  a  corporate  capacity  is 
largely  due  to  his  disinterested  civic  patriotism,  and  these 
memorials  of  the  past  which  we  have  gathered  and  hold  in 
trust  for  the  community  are  mute  orators,  whose  silence  is 
more  eloquent  of  the  dead  than  are  any  words  of  mine.  In- 
troduced, however,  to  this  organization  at  his  invitation,  and 
sympathizing  with  the  purpose  which  unites  us,  I  accept  the 
task  of  recalling  the  salient  features  of  his  career,  in  a  hall  the 
walls  of  which  once  echoed  the  eloquence  of  his  great  ances- 
tor,—  "dead  ere  his  prime"  —  and  in  which  memorials  of 
his  family  surround  us  like  the  ancestral  statues  which  the 
Romans  bore  in  the  funeral  processions  of  their  heroes.  If  I 
have  read  aright  the  history  of  our  late  associate,  two  instincts 
were  strongly  developed  in  him  which  are  rarely  united  in  the 
same  person,  the  military  and  the  antiquarian,  and  it  is  for 
the  purpose  of  suggesting  a  lesson  of  patriotic  duty  as  soldier 
and  scholar,  that  I  ask  your  attention.  In  this  filial  act  of 
commemoration  of  one  of  its  founders,  this  Society  properly 
invites  the  presence,  not  only  of  his  relatives,  but  of  his  gal- 
lant companions  in  arms,  in  whose  congenial  intercourse  he 


8 


forgot  the  hardships  of  war,  and  in  charge  of  whose  tender 
ministrations  he  was  laid  to  rest. 

The  early  life  of  General  Quincy  was  like  that  of  many  a 
Boston  boy.  Born  in  1832,  he  was  prepared  for  college  at  a 
private  school,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  University  in  1852. 
To  none  of  his  contemporaries  was  the  prospect  of  life  fairer 
at  this  moment  than  to  him.  He  had  graduated  at  a  college 
over  which  his  grandfather  had  presided,  who  was  closing  a 
career  of  usefulness  which  this  city  is  proud  to  remember. 
Upon  his  father  had  worthily  fallen  the  unspotted  mantle  of 
municipal  authority.  Under  the  roofs  of  both,  the  refined  cul- 
ture of  Boston  met  whatever  was  most  distinguished  or  illus- 
trious from  abroad.  With  such  examples  to  stir  his  youthful 
ambition,  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law  with  one  of  its 
ablest  masters,  now  bending  under  the  weight  of  years,  but 
of  undimmed  intellect,  who  has  said  that  he  never  had  a  more 
faithful  or  promising  student  than  Quincy.  He  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  1855. J 

He  had  already  joined  the  Independent  Corps  of  Cadets, 
then  known  as  the  Divisionary  Corps  of  Cadets.  To  this  or- 
ganization, then  as  always  composed  of  "  the  flower  of  Bos- 
ton's youth,"  and  worthy  to  be  reckoned  among  the  "  institu- 
tions" in  which  the  city  takes  a  maternal  pride,  Quincy  ever 
maintained  an  affectionate  loyalty.2  It  had  been  his  military 
alma  mater,  in  that  it  had  prepared  him  for  the  real  struggle 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  he 
would  have  preferred  to  command  the  Cadets  than  to  accept 
their  escort  as  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  Let  me  here 
anticipate  mention  of  some  later  events,  by  quoting  the  words 
of  the  present  Commander  of  the  Corps  concerning  Quincy's 


1  The  first  volume  of  "  Massachusetts  Reports,"  called  "  Quincy's  Reports," 
was  edited  by  Samuel  M.  Quincy,  and  was  published  in  1S65 ;  it  contains  cases 
from  the  manuscripts  of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  (1744-75) ;  Mr.  Quincy  also  edited 
the  "  Law  Reporter  "  with  John  Lowell,  for  the  years  1859-60. 

2  The  dates  of  General  Quincy's  connection  with  the  Cadets  have  kindly  been 
furnished  by  Captain  Charles  E.  Stevens  :  Joined,  Dec.  1,  1S53  ;  appointed  color- 
sergeant,  May  3,  1S54  to  June  19,  1855 ;  elected  first  lieutenant  (in  command  of  a 
company),  Aug.  26,  1858;  resigned  to  enter  the  2d  Mass.  Infantry,  May,  1861  ; 
rejoined,  Dec.  31,  1875,  anc^  served  three  years ;  again  rejoined,  Jan.  30,  1879, 
and  served  one  year. 


connection  with  it,  not  merely  as  of  historic   interest,  but   of 
practical  example  to  the  youth  of  Boston  : 

"  He  was  warmly  interested  in  the  corps,  and  never  failed 
at  all  times  to  give  proofs  of  his  interest.  For  many  years 
after  the  war  he  was  not  only  enrolled  as  a  private  in  oil 
the  companies,  but  he  did  active  duty.  It  was  often  the  sub- 
ject of  remark,  that  a  man  who  had  held  a  commission  in  the 
field  as  Colonel  of  one  of  the  United  States  regiments  should 
be  willing  to  go  through  the  drudgery  of  a  private's  work  in 
the  ranks  of  the  militia.  Yet  such  was  the  case  of  General 
Quincy,  and  he  did  the  work  because  he  conscientiously  be- 
lieved it  his  duty  to  do  it.  I  have  often  talked  with  him  on 
this  subject.  His  idea  was  that  every  Boston  gentleman  was 
bound  to  give  a  certain  amount  of  time  and  effort  to  service 
with  the  Corps  of  Cadets.  He  became  very  impatient  when 
he  saw  scores  of  young  fellows  unable  to  grasp  the  high 
motive  that  led  him  to  think  as  he  did.  We  had  also  frequent 
talks  on  the  methods  by  which  the  corps  was  conducted,  and 
he  never  made  a  suggestion  that  did  not  receive  respectful 
attention. 

"  But  perhaps  the  greatest  service  he  ever  did  the  corps  was 
one  that  he  probably  never  gave  a  thought  to,  so  far  as  it  af- 
fected the  battalion.  I  mean  the  little  book  he  wrote  as  a 
Colonel  in  the  United  States  army  for  the  use  of  recruits  in 
his  regiment.  He  called  it,  I  believe,  a  Manual  of  Camp  and 
Garrison  Duty.  So  far  as  I  have  ever  seen  any  manual  relat- 
ing to  such  duty,  it  is  the  best.  Since  General  Quincy  wrote 
it,  of  course  it  has  become  obsolete  in  some  details,  but  it 
still  remains  the  model  for  all  such  manuals  ;  and,  with  a  few- 
alterations  to  suit  the  tactical  changes  and  changes  of  army 
custom,  it  now  forms  the  basis  of  the  chapter  on  similar  duties 
in  the  Massachusetts  Regulations.  These  regulations  were 
prepared  fifteen  years  after  General  Quincy  wrote  his  little 
book,  but  the  Corps  of  Cadets  had  then  used  the  book  for  sev- 
eral years  in  the  guise  of  standing  orders  for  camp." 

It  is  a  strange  illustration  of  tempora  mutautur,  that  the 
man  who  was  destined  to  command  two  regiments  of  United 
States  colored  troops  in  a  war  to  support  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws  carried  the  flag  as  color-sergeant  of  the  Cadets  dur- 


IO 


ing  the  three  days  that  they  were  ordered  out  at  the  time  of 
the  capture  and  rendition  of  Anthony  Burns  in  1854.  It  was, 
doubtless,  a  disagreeable  duty,  but  when  the  Rebellion  broke 
out,  it  was  seen  that  there  was  a  virtue  in  obedience  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  found  Quincy,  therefore, 
ready.  Like  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  whom  the  Cadets 
had  trained  to  active  service  in  the  field,  he  was  no  raw  re- 
cruit, but  a  soldier,  ready  to  obey,  fit  to  command.  His  appli- 
cation for  assignment  to  duty  was  made  May  2,  1861,  and  on 
the  20th  of  that  month  he  was  appointed  by  Colonel  Gordon 
Captain  of  Co.  E.  2d  Mass.  Infantry,  then  encamped  at  Brook 
Farm,  in  West  Roxbury.  He  was  obliged,  however,  to  lay 
aside  the  functions  of  a  legislator  in  order  to  accept  the  com- 
mission of  an  officer.  On  the  day  when  Lincoln  was  first 
elected  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  Quincy  had 
been  chosen  a  member  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  General 
Court,  representing  in  part  the  ward  which  then  contained 
this  building,  Faneuil  Hall  and  the  Old  South  Church.1 

The  promotion  from  first  lieutenant  to  captain  was  only  a 
technical  one,  for  Quincy  had  already  commanded  a  company, 
and  the  tactical  skill  which  he  had  shown  in  the  militia  served 
him  in  good  stead  in  preparing  his  company  for  the  sterner 
duties  of  war.  First  assigned  to  General  Patterson's  command 
in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  which  was  afterward  assumed 
by  General  Banks,  the  regiment  received  its  baptism  of  fire 
during  the  retreat  of  May,  1862,  and  took  part  in  the  battle 
of  Cedar  Mountain  in  August  of  that  year,  as  part  of  the  army 
of  Virginia  under  command  of  General  Pope. 

In  this  action,  so  disastrous  to  the  regiment  but  so  fortu- 
nate for  its  reputation  for  gallantry,  through  which  so  many 
of  its  bravest  officers  and  men  entered  the  Valhalla  of  heroes, 
Captain  Quincy  was  wounded  in  two  places  and  taken  pris- 
oner.    The  wound  in  the  foot,  which  was  a  permanent  disa- 

1  The  dates  of  General  Quincy's  commissions,  etc.,  in  the  2d  Mass.  Regiment 
are:  Captain,  May  24,  1S61  ;  Major,  Sept.  17,  1862;  Colonel,  Nov.  9,  1S62 ;  battle 
of  Cedar  Mountain,  Aug.  9,  1862;  rejoined  the  regiment,  March  6,  1863;  re- 
signed after  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  May,  1863;  Brevet  Brig.-General,  March 
13,  1865. 


1 1 


bility,  brought  him  to  the  ground,  and  he  was  led  off  the  field 

and  laid  among  a  mass  of  wounded  soldiers.  He  remained 
there  all  night  and  the  next  day,  but  was  finally  carried  to  the 
rebel  hospital,  and  from  there  by  rail  to  Staunton.  While  in 
the  hospital  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  he  saved 
his  leg  from  amputation.  There  was  more  serviee  in  it  still, 
and  his  military  career  had  only  just  begun. 

Arriving  at  Staunton  he  found  in  his  blouse  pocket,  "after 
acute  physical  suffering  had  in  a  measure,"  as  he  says,  "given 
place  to  the  prisoner's  worst  enemy,  the  leaden  vacuity  of 
ennui,"  a  little  almanac  and  diary  for  1862,  with  half  a  lead 
pencil.  With  these  he  succeeded  in  keeping  a  journal  of 
daily  events  with  his  reflections  thereon,  during  the  whole 
period  of  his  captivity,  the  last  entry  being  comprised  in  the 
words,  printed  later  in  all  the  glory  of  capital  letters,  "A 
free  man  at  Willard's."  This  diary  was  read  at  a  reunion 
of  officers  in  Boston,  May  11,  1877,  and  printed  for  private 
distribution. 

"  These  jottings,"  as  he  calls  them,  were  almost  his  only 
resource,  "to  pass  away  the  leaden  hours.  With  no  com- 
panion," he  says,  "  to  whom  I  can  open  my  soul,  I  must 
soliloquize,  if  only  to  convince  myself  that  I  have  not  yet 
sunk  to  the  level  of  my  surroundings."  Under  date  of  Sep- 
tember 20  he  wrote  :  "This,  in  my  opinion,  is  for  the  country 
the  very  moment  of  convulsion  and  travail,  out  of  which  some 
new  state  of  things, — the  commencement  of  some  new  era, 
—  for  better  or  for  worse,  will  surely  come.  But  at  this 
critical  moment  to  be  walled  up  alive,  wdiere  only  faint 
echoes  and  uncertain  sounds  from  the  great  fields  meet  us,  — 
the  fields  where  our  fellow-soldiers  are  playing  out  the  great 
game  of  the  age,  —  is  a  chance  of  war,  and  nothing  to  com- 
plain of  while  we  still  live.  A  great  battle  has  been  fought 
in  Maryland  (Antietam),  and,  although  they  make  it  out  that 
we  were  worsted,  yet  from  signs  and  tokens  we  draw  our  own 
inferences." 

On  the  28th  he  heard  of  the  death  of  Major  Wilder  D wight, 
after  a  report  that  Pope's  officers  were  to  be  paroled,  and  so 
he  writes  :  "  Away  with  visions  of  home  and  ease  !  Wilder 
D wight  has  been  killed,  and  I  am  major,  I  suppose.     .     .     . 


12 


Now  to  play  the  man,  and  be  prepared  to  go  to  the  majority, 
in  either  sense,  when  God's  will  is."  A  rebel  soldier,  just 
leaving  for  his  regiment,  shakes  hands  all  round  with  the 
prisoners,  who  enjoin  him  to  take  care  of  himself,  and  Quincy 
writes  :  "  I  have  experienced  from  rebel  privates  almost  uni- 
form kindness,  good  fellowship,  camaraderie ;  they  treat  one 
as  a  fellow-soldier.  All  the  insult,  all  the  bitterness  and  ill- 
treatment  have  come  from  officers  and  citizens  in  high  positions 
in  society,  and  from  women." 

In  October  the  prisoners  were  granted  the  liberty  of  the 
yard,  by  virtue  of  a  parole  which  Quincy  wrote  and  had 
signed  and  sent  down.  He  was  the  first,  he  said  afterward, 
to  test  the  document's  efficacy,  "for  we  could  hardly  believe 
that  it  would  really  pass  us  out.  The  guard  stopped  me,  of 
course,  called  the  corporal,  and  finally  decided  that  it  was  a 
genuine  thing ;  and  I  hobbled  painfully  down  four  steep 
flights  and  out,  looked  up  and  saw  the  rest  all  crowding  to 
the  window,  and  waving  hands  and  hats,  to  see  us  actually 
emerge,  like  a  rat,  from  the  trap  which  had  held  us  through 
long  weary  months.  I  find,"  he  wrote  in  the  diary,  "that  the 
art  of  crutch  progression  is  quite  a  science,  and  has  its  out- 
side edges  and  its  backward  rolls,  etc.,  which  are  not  to  be 
learned  without  much  practice  and  balancing.  Up  and  down 
stairs  with  ease,  confidence,  and  grace,  is  somewhat  of  an 
attainment." 

In  October,  Quincy  and  other  prisoners  were  removed  to 
Libby  prison  at  Richmond.  It  had  been  reported  that,  by 
special  orders  of  Jefferson  Davis,  none  of  Pope's  officers,  cap- 
tured at  Cedar  Mountain,  were  to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of 
war  or  paroled,  but  kept  as  hostages  to  be  hanged  from  time 
to  time  in  retaliation  for  the  execution  of  guerillas,  threatened 
by  Pope.  But  Quincy  had  seen  a  Richmond  paper  with  an 
official  list  of  prisoners  paroled  from  the  Libby,  among  whom 
were  several  of  Pope's  officers,  and  he,  therefore,  claimed  his 
rights  as  a  prisoner  of  war ;  and,  on  behalf  of  himself  and  all 
who  were  able  to  travel,  he  demanded  to  be  sent  to  Rich- 
mond, to  take  his  turn  for  parole  or  exchange.  His  claim 
was  allowed,  and  they  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  depart  at 
half-past  four  the  next  morning.     "  There  wasn't  much  sleep 


13 


in  No.  7  that  night,"  he  writes,  "and  early  next  morning  we 
were  off.  At  2  A.  M.,  (the  following  day)  we  arrived,  where 
I  now  write,  at  the  Libby  prison,  being  received  with  the  once 
familiar  cry  of  'Corporal  of  the  Guard.  Post  No.  1.'  The 
corporal  came  and  let  us  in.  The  officer,  cross  and  sleepy, 
sent  us  to  the  hospital  department,  up  three  flights — an 
immense  room  in  a  large  tobacco  warehouse,  lighted  with  a 
single  dip,  which  only  made  darkness  visible.  A  ragged 
young  nurse,  with  his  hair  on  end,  welcomed  us  to  the  scene 
of  despair.  We  were  put  on  cots  of  sacking,  with  nothing 
under  or  over  us,  and  shivered  ourselves  into  oblivion.  The 
next  morning,  the  familiar  notes  of  reveille  on  the  fife,  accom- 
panied by  the  bass  and  snare-drum  of  the  side-show,  brought 
us  again  to  consciousness.  I  was  about  to  put  my  head  out 
of  the  window,  but  was  forcibly  informed  that  I'd  better  not 
unless  I  wanted  it  shot  off.  This  day,  a  party  went  off  which 
we  had  hoped  to  join,  but  were  disappointed." 

On  Sunday,  however,  Ouincy  was  paroled,  and  he  and  his 
companions,  "a  wretched  crew,"  were  packed  into  coaches 
and  wagons,  and  jolted  a  miserable  fifteen  miles  to  the  flag- 
of-truce  boat,  whence  he  reached  Washington,  drew  his  pay, 
and  replaced  his  ragged  blouse,  bullet-pierced  trousers,  and 
torn  Confederate  cap  ("given  me  on  the  field  to  replace  my 
broad-brimmed  felt,  which  a  Georgia  gentleman  fancied"),  by 
the  jauntiest  uniform  he  could  find,  and  was  so  transformed 
that  the  captain  of  the  boat  which  had  brought  him  to  Wash- 
ington denied  having  seen  him  before,  until  convinced  by  his 
crutches  and  wounded  foot. 

From  the  day  of  Cedar  Mountain  through  all  the  subse- 
quent years  of  his  existence,  he  was  never  again  a  well  man. 
Of  him,  as  of  many  another,  it  may  be  said  that  he  gave  his 
life  for  his  country  as  truly  as  if  he  had  fallen  in  the  imminent 
deadly  breach  at  Chancellorsville,  or  had  wasted  miserably 
away  in  the  prison-pen  of  Richmond.  Although  commis- 
sioned colonel  of  his  regiment  in  1862,  Ouincy  did  not  take 
command  until  March,  1863. 

It  was  during  his  furlough,  spent  in  partial  recovery  from 
wounds  and  imprisonment,  that  I  remember  seeing  him,  then 
a  stranger  to  me,  painfully  limping  on  his  crutches  down  Park 


H 

street,  one  of  those  gaunt  figures  not  unfamiliar  in  our  North- 
ern cities,  almost  the  only  visible  indication  that  elsewhere  in 
our  borders  War  was  cutting  the  Gordian  knot  which  Peace 
had  failed  to  unloose.  He  might  have  remained  at  home,  and 
posed  successfully  as  "the  broken  soldier,  kindly  bade  to 
stay  ; "  but  with  the  same  sense  of  duty  which  sent  him  and 
thousands  like  him  to  the  war,  his  keen  spirit  chafed  under 
the  delay  of  a  tedious  cure,  and  so,  when  in  March  he  assumed 
command  of  his  regiment,  he  had  not  wholly  recovered ;  but 
the  drills  and  inspections  of  that  winter  went  on,  which  placed 
the  2d  Mass.  Infantry  among  the  eleven  regiments  in  the  en- 
tire army  found  worthy,  after  a  special  examination,  of  high 
commendation.  That  the  Second  did  its  duty  at  Chancellors- 
ville  in  May,  losing  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  its  effective  force, 
is  part  of  its  history,  but  here  Quincy's  connection  with  it 
ceased. 

Originally  of  slender  form  and  delicate  organization,  his  in- 
domitable spirit  had  hitherto  carried  him  superior  to  physical 
weakness,  but  he  had  reached  the  limit  of  successful  endur- 
ance, and  he  turned  reluctantly  from  active  service  to  another 
period  of  recuperation,  in  the  hope  that  later  he  might  be 
assigned  to  some  other  field  of  patriotic  endeavor.  Accord- 
ingly, having  found  after  the  march  of  his  regiment  to 
Stafford  Court  House,  subsequent  to  the  battle,  that  he  had 
entirely  overestimated  his  strength,  and  unwilling  to  retain  a 
position  the  duties  of  which  he  could  not  fully  discharge,  he 
resigned  his  commission,  and  in  October  of  that  year  was 
appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  73d  United  States  Colored 
Infantry,  and  detailed  as  acting  assistant  inspector-general  on 
the  staff  of  General  Andrews,  formerly  of  the  2d  Mass.  Regi- 
ment, who,  after  the  reduction  of  Port  Hudson,  was  assigned 
to  the  organization  of  Corps  d,Afriq?ce,  in  the  Department  of 
the  Gulf.1     It  was  a  congenial  position  for  Colonel  Quincy, 

1  The  following  are  some  approximate  dates  of  General  Quincy's  commissions 
and  appointments  in  the  Department  of  the  Gulf :  Lieut.-Colonel  73d  U.  S.  Col. 
Infantry,  Oct.,  1S63;  Colonel,  Fall  of  1864;  Colonel  of  the  96th  and  81st  Regi- 
ments from  March  13,  1S65,  to  Nov.  30,  1866,  when  he  was  mustered  out.  Acting 
Mayor  of  New  Orleans,  May  5,  to  June,  1S65  ;  member  of  the  Claims  Commis- 
sion to  Sept.,  1866. 


*5 


for  his  scholastic  as  well  as  military  education  and  aptitudes 
enabled  him  to  compile  some  technical  works  on  drill  and 
discipline,  already  alluded  to,  which  received  the  commenda- 
tion of  his  superior  officers,  and  were  of  such  assistance  to 
the  junior  officers  of  the  garrison  that  they  gained  for  it  the 
appellation  of  "the  West  Point  of  the  Mississippi." 

In  the  fall  of  1864  he  was  promoted  to  the  colonelcy  of  the 
regiment,  and  years  afterward  he  made  a  touching  reference 
to  his  connection  with  it.  In  a  speech  in  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  December  18,  1872,  on  the  famous 
resolution  censuring  Sumner's  proposition  in  the  U.  S.  Sen- 
ate,—  "that  the  names  of  battles  with  our  fellow-citizens 
shall  not  be  continued  in  the  army  register  or  placed  upon  the 
regimental  colors  of  the  United  States,"  General  Ouincy 
opposed  the  passage  of  the  resolution,  because  he  did  not 
believe  that  it  was  the  province  of  the  Legislature  to  rebuke 
or  censure  the  representatives  at  Washington  ;  but  as  a  citi- 
zen and  soldier,  he  did  not  think  that  the  time  had  arrived  to 
wipe  out  the  names,  not  of  victories,  but,  of  actions  in  which 
the  United  States  troops  had  been  engaged,  and  feeling  that 
Mr.  Sumner's  proposition  was,  therefore,  premature,  he  said : 
"At  one  time  during  the  war  I  was  colonel  of  the  73d  U.  S. 
Colored  Infantry,  a  regiment,  which,  under  another  comman- 
der, had  highly  distinguished  itself  in  the  first  bloody  repulse 
at  Port  Hudson.  It  lost  heavily;  it  was  mentioned  with  high 
praise  by  the  commanding  general ;  but  yet,  when  a  year 
afterward  a  departmental  order  was  issued,  specifying  the  regi- 
ments entitled  to  inscribe  'Port  Hudson'  on  their  colors, 
the  two  negro  regiments  were  quietly  ignored.  I  addressed  a 
petition  at  once  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  at  Washington, 
stating  the  case,  and  closing  by  a  mention  of  the  fact,  that 
whatever  might  be  the  fate  of  the  petition,  yet  that  the  colors 
of  my  regiment  bore  one  honorable  mark  which  never  should 
be  effaced,  —  the  broad,  deep  stain  of  the  life-blood  of  the 
color-sergeant  who  fell  in  the  unsuccessful  charge,  and  relin- 
quished his  flag  only  with  his  life.  I  received  in  consequence 
direct  authority,  from  the  Adjutant-General  at  Washington, 
to  inscribe  'Port  Hudson'  upon  the  blood-stained  flag  of  the 


i6 


Colonel  Quincy  was  president  of  an  examining  board  for 
officers  of  colored  troops  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  later  at  New- 
Orleans.  As  colonel  of  the  96th,  and  then,  by  consolidation, 
of  the  81st  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry,  in  which  Greely,  afterward 
of  Arctic  fame,  was  an  officer,  he  commanded  the  regiment 
during  the  riot  in  New  Orleans,  in  July,  1866,  when  the  rebel 
element  attacked  the  members  of  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, and  in  which  several  white  and  black  Unionists  lost 
their  lives. 

His  letters  give  a  pleasing  picture  of  his  life  in  New 
Orleans.  His  love  of  foreign  languages  took  him  into  a 
French  family,  and  he  gave  his  spare  time  to  the  study  of 
French  and  German.  There  are  frequent  calls  for  German 
books,  and  even  mention  of  that  invariable  adjunct  of  a  young 
man's  life  in  a  foreign  family,  the  landlady's  pretty  daughter. 
He  humorously  announces  in  one  letter  his  appointment  as 
acting  mayor  of  New  Orleans,  saying  that  General  Banks  had 
that  day  executed  "a  coup  d'etat,  by  which  the  civil  mayor 
has  been  decapitated  and  I  am  installed  vice-regent  in  his 
place.  Half  the  city  is  delighted — the  other  half  furious, 
.  .  .  but  if  it  pleases  you  to  have  another  '  Mayor  Quincy 
in  the  family,  soyez-en  heureux." 

The  assassination  of  Lincoln  in  the  previous  April  wrung 
from  him  a  cry  of  anguish.  When  the  news  came  the  shops 
were  closed  without  orders,  "  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  city  had 
received  a  mortal  blow,  and  the  very  sunshine  looked  mourn- 
ful as  it  struck  down  the  deserted  and  hushed  streets.  Our 
negro  troops  will  feel  as  if  they  had  lost  their  father  in  the 
President.  In  the  recent  assault  on  Fort  Blakely  they  led 
the  charge,  and  when  they  went  over  the  parapet  the  enemy  in 
many  instances  fell  on  their  knees,  expecting  Fort  Pillow 
treatment,  but  by  the  aid  of  their  excellent  discipline  the 
troops  were  restrained.  If  the  murder  of  the  President  had 
then  taken  place  and  been  known,  they  would  have  charged 
with  Lear's  furious  cry  of  '  Kill,  kill,  kill,  kill,  kill ! '  and  nothing 
human  could  then  have  saved  the  garrison  when  the  black 
faces  with  gleaming  eyes  came  swarming  over  their  works." 

In  August  he  is  looking  forward  to  a  return  at  skating-time, 
and  says  that  his  lameness  is  all  gone,  "  and  only  an  occasional 


i7 


twinge  reminds  me  of  that  bullet  that  went  crashing  through 
the  small  bones  one  Saturday  night  about  sundown,  in  a  sort 
of  lurid  fog  of  battle,  in  which  gunpowder  and  twilight  made 
an  infernal  demi-jour,  'when  the  ranks  were  rolled  in  vapor, 
and  the  winds  were  laid  with  sound.' '  He  was,  however,  to 
remain  in  the  city  another  year  to  serve  as  chairman  of  the 
Claims  Commission  to  adjust  differences  between  citizens 
and  the  national  government.  This  varied  and  honorable 
career  was  rewarded  with  the  brevet  of  Brigadier-General, 
which  he  received  March  13,  1865,  "for  gallant  and  meritori- 
ous services  during  the  War." 

After  leaving  the  army,  General  Quincy  spent  a  year  and  a 
half  in  Europe,  rallying  in  a  milder  climate  than  ours  his  scat- 
tered forces,  pursuing  with  zest  his  favorite  studies,  and  stor- 
ing his  mind  with  those  pictures  and  images  of  the  past,  of 
which  he  was  to  make  frequent  use  in  literary  exercise.  Shat- 
tered in  health,  and,  therefore,  unable  to  engage  with  persist- 
ency in  a  laborious  profession,  he  might  have  withdrawn  into 
the  recesses  of  a  library,  and  spent  the  succeeding  years  in 
congenial  study.  But  he  was  still  a  man  ;  he  had,  on  a  wider 
field,  shown  himself  an  American  ;  he  was  now  to  adapt  to 
himself  the  words  of  the  Latin  dramatist  and  to  declare:  "I 
am  a  Bostonian,  and  nothing  that  relates  to  her  is  foreign  to 
me."  He  was  again  called  to  the  Legislature  from  the  same 
ward  which  had  once  before  entrusted  her  interests  to  his 
keeping,  and  twice  the  electors  of  the  entire  city  (in  1S73  and 
1875)  chose  him  to  the  honorable  office  of  alderman  of 
Boston.  We  may  be  sure  that  in  these  positions  he  gave  a 
conscientious  attention  to  the  subject-matter  of  legislation, 
and  that  his  opinions  were  formed  upon  independent  investiga- 
tion and  an  unbiased  judgment.  But  for  that  independence, 
not  so  much  of  party  shackles  as  of  personal  prejudice  and 
pecuniary  interest,  his  political  career  might  have  been  of 
longer  duration  but  of  less  honor.  He  had  an  honest  ambition 
to  be  of  use  to  his  fellow-citizens  in  whatever  channels  that 
usefulness  might  be  directed.  He  had  the  ambition  but  not 
the  arts  of  the  politician,  and  a  candor  of  thought  and  speech 
which  is  often  incompatible  with  political  popularity.  So 
much  the  worse  for  his  success,  so  much  the  better  for  his 


i8 


memory !  Alluding  to  the  exemption  of  an  ancient  military- 
organization  from  jury  duty,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  to  a 
committee  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  "There  are  among  us 
certain  peculiar  Bostonian  institutions  which  are  held  in  a 
manner  sacred,  and  to  whose  defects  or  doubtful  influence  our 
eyes  must  be  resolutely  closed." 

But  his  true  field  of  activity  lay  elsewhere.  Had  he  been 
merely  a  popular  alderman  we  should  not  meet  to-day  to  de- 
plore his  loss  and  raise  a  tribute  to  his  memory.  There  is  an 
unofficial  office  borne  by  the  alert,  circumspect,  loyal,  learned 
citizen  of  our  municipal  commonwealth,  which  depends  upon 
the  fickle  smile  of  no  constituency,  is  bought  by  no  bargains, 
is  maintained  by  no  truckling,  is  harassed  by  no  fear  of  defeat, 
is  the  victim  of  no  "deals"  or  combinations.  Turning  from 
the  debasing  wrangles  of  political  cabals,  we  shall  find  that 
our  friend  was  for  many  years  an  alderman  at  large,  an  un- 
elected  conservator  of  old  Boston,  of  whose  very  trees  and 
stones  he  felt  himself  to  be  a  part.  Turn  over  the  pages  of 
our  daily  newspapers  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  whenever 
any  question  of  local  interest  has  agitated  the  community, 
any  destruction  of  landmarks  has  been  threatened,  any  pre- 
servation of  monuments  has  been  suggested,  you  will  find  his 
familiar  initials  appended  to  stirring  appeals,  to  ingenious 
satire,  to  eloquent  denunciation.  On  the  question  of  erecting 
a  new  court-house  some  one  mentioned  the  Common  as  an 
available  site,  and  Ouincy  replied  :  "This  spot  of  verdure 
and  foliage  in  the  heart  of  your  city  is  vacant  of  buildings 
for  the  simple  reason  that  it  does  not  belong  to  trade  to 
pile  bricks  and  granite  on  in  order  to  make  rich  men  richer  ; 
nor  can  it  compare  with  your  aristocratic  park  out  of  town, 
over  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shoddy  roll  in  their  carriage  :  but 
it  is  the  people's  Common,  in  which  the  millionaire  has  no 
advantage  over  the  poorest  citizen,  and  which  has  been 
enjoyed  by  the  ancestors  of  both  ever  since  the  days  of 
the  parson  who  used  to  ride  his  brindled  bull  over  it,  two 
centuries  ago.1     The  people  were  driven  off  for  a  time  when 

I  William  Blaxton.  Vide  "  Collections  of  the  Bostonian  Society,"  Vol.  I., 
No.  i,  p.  23. 


19 

Gage's  regiments  camped  there,  but  after  Mr.  Washington 
had  made  the  town  a  little  too  hot  for  the  red-coats  to  stay 
any  longer,  the  people  and  their  cows  came  back,  and  since 
then  upon  this  spot  which  the  red-coats  could  not  hold, 
even  the  legions  of  trade  and  the  almighty  dollar  have  as  yet 
made  no  impression." 

It  was  natural  that  a  man  who  thought  and  spoke  thus  on 
the  preservation  of  Boston's  land-marks  and  public  places 
should  join  those  who  felt  as  he  did,  and  combine  with  them 
for  mutual  support.  If  Ouincy  did  not  suggest  the  formation 
of  our  parent  club  he  was  one  of  its  most  vigorous  advocates, 
and  the  first  meeting  of  those  interested  in  its  formation  was 
held  in  his  office,  near  the  close  of  May,  1879. 

From  that  meeting  sprang  the  Boston  Antiquarian  Club, 
of  the  preliminary  meetings  of  which  General  Ouincy  was 
chairman,  until,  on  its  final  organization,  he  was  elected 
President.  The  object  of  the  club  was  declared  in  the  con- 
stitution to  be  "to  promote  the  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
Boston,  by  the  collection  of  books,  manuscripts,  and  pictures, 
and  by  other  suitable  means."  It  was  intended  to  draw  to  a 
focus  the  Bostonian's  love  of  his  city,  and  to  defend  her 
physical  integrity  as  others  might  combine  to  preserve  intact 
her  political  organism. 

At  the  first  annual  meeting,  January  13,  1880,  the  President, 
on  taking  the  chair,  after  modestly  suggesting  that  others 
had  a  greater  right  to  the  honor  than  himself,  but  that  no  one 
could  receive  it  with  a  deeper  conviction  of  the  real  value, 
both  to  present  and  to  future  generations,  of  the  work  pro- 
posed by  it,  said  that  "  it  is  only  by  a  study  of  the  past  and  of 
its  lessons  that  we  can  assure  ourselves  that  we  are  making 
true  and  not  false  progress.  And  in  this  field  of  the  past  the 
antiquarian  and  the  historian  work  together —  the  one  gather- 
ing, collecting,  and  preserving  the  materials  for  the  other's 
labor.  But  in  addition  to  our  work  of  collecting  and  preserv- 
ing the  materials  for  its  history,  there  is  yet  another  direction, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  in  which  our  Club  may  be  enabled  to  do 
yeoman's  service  in  behalf  of  the  truest  and  best  interests  of 
our  city.  Whenever  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  trade's 
dollar-worshipping  hosts  shall  threaten  the  destruction  of  its 


20 


historic  temples  and  fanes  of  liberty,  the  effacement  of  its 
characteristic  features,  or  the  invasion  of  the  time-honored 
muster-field  which  British  red-coats  failed  to  hold,  then  may 
we  not  hope  that  our  organization  would  serve  as  a  rallying- 
point  and  headquarters  for  a  united  defence  ?  Be  it  ours  to 
furnish  at  least  a  Lanrick-mead,  whereon  the  clansmen  may 
assemble,  confident  that  when  danger  threatens  they  will 
troop  in  like  Roderick's  warriors  at  the  signal  of  the  fiery 
cross." 

The  Antiquarian  Club  continued  to  hold  interesting 
monthly  meetings  during  the  year  1880,  with  a  constantly 
increasing  membership,  which  demanded  separate  and  inde- 
pendent quarters,  found  in  Pemberton  Square.  At  the 
annual  election  of  1881,  the  retiring  president  congratulated 
the  club  upon  its  roll  of  174  members,  and  declined  a  re-elec- 
tion, expressing  his  willingness  to  act  in  any  other  capacity. 
Mr.  W.  H.  Whitmore  was  accordingly  elected  President,  and 
General  Quincy  Secretary  and  Treasurer. 

In  the  record  of  March  8,  1881,  the  subject  of  securing  for 
antiquarian  purposes  and  public  uses  the  Old  State  House  is 
first  mentioned  by  a  resolution  which  the  Secretary  was  in- 
structed to  communicate  to  the  other  historical  associations 
of  the  city,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  concert  of  action  in  its 
favor.  In  June  of  that  year,  General  Quincy  addressed  the 
committee  of  the  city  government,  which  heard  a  petition  to 
remove  this  building  on  the  expiration  of  existing  leases,  be- 
cause it  interfered  with  carrying  out  a  great  public  improve- 
ment, namely :  the  extension  of  Devonshire  street  from 
Milk  street  to  Dock  Square  ;  and  in  its  place,  for  instance,  to 
erect  some  monumental  shaft  or  other  memorial. 

Speaking  by  vote  of  the  Club,  on  behalf  of  the  remonstrants 
to  such  action,  General  Quincy  said  that  "the  old  familiar  cry 
of  common  sense  vs.  sentiment  is  again  raised,  as  though,  for- 
sooth, they  were  the  opposite  poles  of  a  magnet,  and  that 
which  the  one  attracts  the  other  must  necessarily  repel.  So 
far  from  this  being  the  case,  is  it  not  notorious  that  in  many 
of  the  highest  and  most  important  decisions  of  human  life, 
the  dictates  of  common  sense  are  seen  to  be  such  only  because 
they  are  also  the  dictates  of  sentiment  ?     For  instance,  when 


21 


the  thunder  of  Beauregard's  cannonade  of  Sumter  first  reached 
our  ears,  to  the  question  of  common  sense  of  how  best  to 
accept  the  challenge  in  a  manner  to  arouse  enthusiasm  for 
the  old  flag,  sentiment  replied  :    '  Run  it  up  to  the  spire  of 

the  Old  South  Meeting-house.' This  building, 

Mr.  Chairman,"  he  continued,  "is  one  of  the  few  little  pieces 
which  remain  to  us  of  the  old  rebel  town,  as  they  used  to  call 
us  in  Parliament  after  they  had  heard  of  our  little  tea-party  at 
Griffin's  wharf.  Against  these  walls  rattled  the  bullets  of  the 
Boston  Massacre,  and  within  the  same  walls  the  defence  of 
the  same  men  who  fired  these  bullets  was  bravely  undertaken 
by  two  of  the  foremost  patriots  and  sons  of  liberty,  John 
Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.  And  in  this  building,  accord- 
ing to  the  former,  the  child  Independence  was  born.  When 
the  contemplated  World's  Fair  shall  be  held  in  our  city,  if 
the  foreigner  then  in  our  streets,  on  remarking  our  monu- 
ments and  testimonials,  shall  ask  in  what  manner  the  virtues 
of  our  ancestors  are  commemorated,  we  shall  still,  I  trust,  be 
able  to  reply,  Si  monumenta  quaeris,  circumspicc,  and,  without 
crossing  Charlestown  bridge,  show  him  within  a  stone's  throw 
from  each  other,  the  Birthplace  of  Independence,  the  Cradle 
of  Liberty,  and  the  Temple  of  Freedom  —  three  old  buildings 
whose  unpretending  walls  are  more  eloquent  of  the  virtues  of 
the  founders  of  the  republic,  of  that  people's  government 
whose  success  shakes  every  throne,  than  could  be  all  the  tons 
of  granite  or  marble,  which  we,  their  descendants,  could  ever 
pile  together." 

Is  it  out  of  place,  in  commemorating  the  author  of  such 
burning  words  of  civic  eloquence,  to  express  the  hope  that  at 
no  distant  day  this  entire  building,  saved  from  trade's  destruc- 
tion by  the  Antiquarian  Club  of  Boston,  may  be  committed 
to  the  keeping  of  its  successor,  and  preserved  forever  as  a 
monument  of  municipal  loyalty  ! 

The  appeal  of  General  Quincy  and  his  associates  for  the 
preservation  of  this  building  having  been  successful,  we  find 
that  in  November,  1881,  a  committee,  of  which  our  present 
President  was  chairman,  reported  in  favor  of  the  incorporation 
and  enlargement  of  the  Club,  with  a  view  to  its  occupation 
and  supervision  of  the  Memorial  Halls,  and  from  favorable 


22 


action  on  that  report  a  committee  of  ten  members,  of  whom 
General  Quincy  was  one,  associated  themselves  as  a  corpora- 
tion under  the  name  of  the  Bostonian  Society,  for  the  purpose 
of  "  promoting  the  study  of  the  history  of  Boston  and  the 
preservation  of  its  antiquities."  On  the  27th  of  December, 
the  Boston  Antiquarian  Club  transferred  to  it  all  its  property 
and  disbanded. 

To  follow  from  that  time  to  the  present  year  the  intimate 
connection  of  General  Ouincy  with  this  Society  would  be  to 
write  its  history.  The  resolutions,  drawn  up  by  those  who 
had  been  intimately  associated  with  him,  speak  from  a  knowl- 
edge which  I  do  not  possess  of  his  faithful  service  as  Clerk 
and  Treasurer  from  the  organization  to  the  annual  meeting  of 
1884,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Rooms  until  his 
death.  A  resolution  adopted  on  his  retirement  from  the 
former  offices  attests  the  value  of  his  services,  which  it 
declares  to  "have  been  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  the 
Society  to  its  present  state  of  prosperity  and  usefulness,  and 
entitle  him  to  the  warmest  gratitude  of  its  officers  and  mem- 
bers." In  all  these  offices,  as  in  all  the  positions,  civil  and 
military,  he  ever  held,  he  faithfully  performed  the  duties 
belonging  to  them  as  far  as  his  strength  allowed,  and  when 
his  strength  was  no  longer  equal  to  the  tasks,  he  laid  them 
down  ;  office  had  no  charm  for  him  unconnected  with  duty,  to 
shirk  which  was  as  foreign  to  his  nature  as  flattery,  and  as 
odious  as  hypocrisy. 

His  work  was  done.  Still,  he  did  not  cease  to  be  a  con- 
spicuous figure  in  the  gatherings  of  men  to  whom  his  presence 
gave  pleasure.  So  long  as  he  stood  upon  the  earth  he  was 
always  to  be  counted  among  those  who  maintained  the  right, 
the  fitting,  the  proper,  against  whatever  was  mean  and  un- 
worthy and  contemptible.  Especially  was  this  true  of  every- 
thing that  concerned  the  military  in  its  relations  to  the  civil 
power  and  economy.  Nothing  stirred  his  indignation  more 
than  audacious  attempts  to  steal  the  uniform  of  the  soldier 
to  serve  the  politician  in.  Upon  a  proposition  to  exempt 
soldiers  from  the  provisions  of  the  civil  service  rules,  he 
spurned  what  he  called  an  insult  to  the  self-respecting  vet- 
erans ;   "for  our  battles  and  our  hardships,"   he  said,   "our 


23 


wounds  and  our  prisons,  we  have  the  reward  of  the  conscious- 
ness of  patriotic  duty  done  ;  for  the  sake  of  our  past  services 
do  not  force  upon  the  public  our  present  services  at  a  price 
which  they  may  not  be  worth.  I  have  so  much  confidence  in 
the  average  intelligence  and  manliness  of  that  class  that  I 
should  be  willing,  were  it  possible,  to  assemble  the  survivors 
of  all  who  at  any  time  served  under  my  command,  during  my 
nearly  six  years  of  army  service,  with  the  utmost  confidence 
that  they  would,  after  I  had  talked  with  them  for  ten  minutes, 
be  ready  to  join  me  by  an  overwhelming  majority  in  an  indig- 
nant protest  against  this  legislation,  as  an  insult  and  a  slur 
upon  their  manhood."  What  nobler  epitaph  could  the  self- 
respecting  soldier  wish  than  these  manly  words  ?  Of  such  a 
one  did  Wordsworth  think,  when  he  drew  the  character  of 
the  "Happy  Warrior,"  — 

"Who,  if  he  rise  to  station  of  command, 
Rises  by  open  means ;    and  there  will  stand 
On  honorable  terms,  or  else  retire, 
And  in  himself  possess  his  own  desire ; 
Who  comprehends  his  trust,  and  to  the  same 
Keeps  faithful  with  a  singleness  of  aim  ; 
And  therefore  does  not  stoop,  nor  lie  in  wait 
For  wealth  or  honors,  or  for  worldly  state.,'' 

But  the  poet  declares  that  such  a  soul  is  one 

"whose  master-bias  leans 
To  home-felt  pleasures  and  to  gentle  scenes." 

In  such  an  atmosphere,  rather  than  in  one  heavy  with  the 
shock  of  war  and  politics,  would  we  contemplate  the  closing 
years  of  our  associate's  life,  in  those  reunions  where  he  loved 
to  bind  himself  to  his  comrades  by  a  common  memory  and 
the  exercise  of  congenial  tastes,  never  obtruding  himself  by 
aught  that  could  smack  of  arrogance  or  the  pride  of  birth  or 
of  high  achievement  ;  reserved,  rather,  in  general  conversa- 
tion, until  some  word  kindled  his  imagination  or  stirred  his 
recollection.  Who  has  not  then  seen  him  enter  the  contro- 
versial miUe  with  visor  down,  resenting  attacks  upon  what  he 


24 


loved,  striking  vigorously  at  shams,  stripping  with  ridicule  the 
tatters  from  impostures,  and  then  withdrawing  as  quietly  as 
he  came  ?  Often  assuming  an  air  of  indifference  and  style  of 
persiflage,  and  a  punctilious  courtesy  after  the  manner  of  the 
Frenchmen  at  Fontenoy,  advancing  hat  in  hand,  and  request- 
ing the  gentlemen  of  England  to  fire  first,  Quincy,  when  the 
hour  came,  struck  valiant  blows  that  rang  upon  his  opponent's 
shield  and  then  pierced  it. 

But  those  who  come  here  to-day  to  recall  his  features 
snatched  from  oblivion  by  the  artist's  hand,  and  to  revive  the 
impression  his  life  and  character  made  upon  them,  will  think 
of  him  as  the  gentleman  and  scholar,  as  the  student  of  history 
and  our  local  antiquities  in  the  Bostonian  Society,  and  of  war 
records  in  the  Military  Historical  Society,  as  the  lover  of 
German  poetry  and  music  in  the  Orpheus  Musical  Society,  as 
the  patriot  soldier  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  as  the  philanthropic 
successor  of  his  father  as  trustee  of  the  Perkins  Institution 
for  the  Blind.  Faithful  to  duty  and  to  friendship  in  all  these 
associations  of  human  interest  and  activity,  he  has  not  found 
a  successor  —  his  chair  is  still  empty. 

His  literary  powers  were  by  no  means  small,  and  would 
have  sustained  greater  public  exercise  than  he  gave  them. 
He  was  fond  of  literary  exercise,  in  which  he  forgot  the 
ravages  of  disease.  He  loved  to  turn  his  knowledge  of 
foreign  languages  to  account  by  translations,  and  these  efforts 
have  a  positive  poetic  value.  How  his  blood  must  have 
stirred  with  thoughts  of  his  own  experience  as  he  translated 
Heine's  "Two  Grenadiers,"  even  as  Sidney's  at  the  reading 
of  "  Chevy  Chace  "  :  — 


Brother,  thou  now  must  grant  my  latest  prayer. 

When  death  arrives,  of  all  friends  still  the  best, 
My  corse  to  our  own  country  thou  wilt  bear, 

And  in  fair  France's  bosom  let  me  rest. 


The  cross  of  Honor  with  its  crimson  band 
Upon  my  heart  then  sacredly  be  placed ; 

My  trusty  musket  give  into  my  hand, 

And  gird  my  sword-belt  firm  about  my  waist. 


25 


"A  sentry  in  my  grave,  listening  each  sound, 
Ready  for  duty  silent  will  I  lie, 
Until  his  cannon  booming  shake  the  ground, 
And  neighing  squadrons  charge  in  thunder  by. 

"When  o'er  my  grave  my  Emperor  shall  ride, 
'Mid  clashing  sabres  glistening  in  light, 
Armed  and  equipped  then  spring  I  to  his  side, 
For  him,  my  Monarch  and  my  Chief,  to  fight!*' 

No  man  ever  fought  more  bravely  than  Ouincy  a  losing 
battle  against  disease  gnawing  for  years  like  the  Promethean 
vulture.  How  little  of  that  battle  with  its  varying  phases 
his  best  friends  really  knew,  as  they  saw  him  from  day  to 
day  assuming  a  cheerfulness  he  did  not  feel,  smiling  on  the 
brink  of  a  precipice  they  did  not  see  !  He  had  found  in  these 
weary  years  of  struggle  and  waiting,  of  brief  hope  and  longer 
despair,  the  truth  of  Carlyle's  assertion  that  "the  blessedness 
of  life  is  not  in  living  but  in  working  well,"  and  when  the 
power  of  working  well  was  gone,  life  itself  was  no  more 
worth  the  living.  Solitary  in  the  society  of  those  who  loved 
him,  and  silent  when  suffering  most,  he  bore  alone  the  brunt 
of  the  battle,  holding  high  the  flag  as  in  many  a  former 
contest. 

One  who  knew  him  well,  eminent  as  soldier  and  jurist,  sums 
up  in  touching  words  the  character  of  our  friend  and  his  de- 
termination to  fight  the  battle  to  the  end  :  "I  knew  General 
Ouincy  well,  both  during  and  since  the  war.  No  more  high- 
minded  and  honorable  man  ever  lived  ;  no  man  was  more  actu- 
ated always  by  the  great  idea  of  duty.  He  was  thoroughly 
brave,  not  in  the  battle-field  only  but  wherever  occasion  called 
for  the  higher  qualities  of  moral  courage.  His  wide  reading 
and  fine  literary  taste  made  him  delightful  and  attractive  as  a 
companion  and  friend.  We  were  associated  for  several  years 
in  the  Military  Historical  Society,  of  which  we  were  respect- 
ively President  and  Secretary,  and  I  had  occasion  to  know 
how  faithful  he  was  in  small  things  as  well  as  great,  when 
they  came  within  the  sphere  of  what  he  had  undertaken  to 
do.  It  is  with  infinite  pain  that  I  have  seen  this  winter  that 
his  life  was  passing  away,  and  that  in  great  pain  and  suffering. 


26 


We  dined  alone  together  about  three  weeks  since,  and  I  in- 
duced him  by  inquiries  to  tell  me  somewhat  fully  of  his 
health.  It  was  a  very  sad  and  distressing  story,  but  he  ended 
by  saying :  '  I  am  bearing  no  more  than  other  men  have  borne 
before  me.  I  will  try  to  do  so  to  the  end.'  He  then  quoted 
some  lines  of  Longfellow  as  to  'the  red  planet  Mars,'  in  which 
the  words  'suffer  and  be  strong'  occur,  and  added,  'that  at 
least  is  what  I  shall  endeavor  to  be.'  " 

Longfellow,  in  "  The  Light  of  Stars,"  had  given 

"  the  first  watch  of  the  night 
To  the  red  planet  Mars. 

"  The  star  of  the  unconquered  will, 
He  rises  in  my  breast, 
Serene  and  resolute  and  still, 
And  calm  and  self-possessed. 

"  And  thou,  too,  whosoe'er  thou  art, 
That  readest  this  brief  psalm, 
As  one  by  one  thy  hopes  depart, 
Be  resolute  and  calm. 

"  O  fear  not  in  a  world  like  this, 
And  thou  shalt  know  ere  long, 
Know  how  sublime  a  thing  it  is 
To  suffer  and  be  strong." 

Who  can  forget  the  final  scene,  when  all  that  was  mortal 
of  the  dead  General  lay  beneath  the  flag  of  his  country  and 
the  draped  banner  of  his  Order,  lulled  to  sleep,  as  it  were,  by 
the  German  songs  he  loved  so  well,  and  borne  to  the  tomb 
of  his  ancestors  with  dirge  of  trumpet  and  organ,  while  strong 
men  wept  !  If  from  some  loftier  sphere  his  disembodied 
spirit  looked  down  upon  so  simple  yet  touching  a  requiem, 
how  was  all  the  anguish  of  his  latter  years  swept  away  as  a 
cloud  when  the  sun  ariseth  ! 

"  Soldier,  rest!  thy  warfare  o'er, 

Sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  not  breaking ; 

Dream  of  battled  fields  no  more, 
Days  of  danger,  nights  of  waking. 


27 


No  rude  sound  shall  reach  thine  ear, 
Armor's  clang,  or  war-steed  champing, 

Trump  nor  pibroch  summon  here 

Mustering  clan,  or  squadron  tramping." 

Brethren  of  the  Bostonian  Society,  soldiers  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  and  of  that  greater  army,  whose  guns,  we  hope,  are 
forever  stacked,  the  name  of  Ouincy  remains  to  us  something 
more  than  a  recollection  —  it  is  already  an  example. 


UUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii  iii 


